You probably can’t imagine a time when employees did their work without e-mail or Internet access. Yet, some 20 years ago, as these communication tools were becoming more common in workplaces, managers struggled with the challenges of providing guidelines for using them. Today, it’s all about social media, which are forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share ideas, information, personal messages, and other content. Social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Instagram, and others are used by more than a billion people.28 And employees don’t just use these on their personal time, but also for work purposes. A recent survey of more than 4,000 companies showed that 72 percent used internal social media tools—such as Slack, Yammer, Chatter, or embedded applications such as Microsoft Teams—to facilitate employee communication.29 That’s why managers again are struggling with guidelines for employee use as they attempt to navigate the power and peril of social media. For example, at grocery chain SuperValu, managers realized that keeping 135,000-plus employees connected and engaged was imperative to continued success.30 They decided to adopt an internal social media tool to foster cooperation and collaboration among its 10 distinct store brands operating in 48 states. And they’re not alone. More and more businesses are turning to social media not just as a way to connect with customers, but also as a way to manage their human resources and tap into their innovation and talent. That’s the potential power of social media. But the potential peril is in how it’s used. When the social media platform becomes a way for boastful employees to brag about their accomplishments, for managers to publish one-way messages to employees, or for employees to argue or gripe about something or someone they don’t like at work, then it’s lost its usefulness. To avoid this, managers need to remember that social media is a tool that needs to be managed to be beneficial. At SuperValu, store managers and assistant managers use the social media system. Although sources say it’s too early to draw any conclusions, it appears that managers who actively make use of the system are having better store sales revenues than those who don’t. In the remainder of the book, we’ll look at how social media is affecting how managers manage, especially in the areas of human resource management, communication, teams, and strategy.